I went and stood on the porch. This wasn’t right. I couldn’t just sit around and wait for Mrs. Redmond to show back up, police in tow. I thought about calling Nyx to see if she could give me a ride, but a Lyft was only five minutes away. I set a pickup, slipped back inside, shoved the stack of paperwork into my bag, and kissed my mom on the top of the head.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“I’ll be back. Try not to worry too much, okay?”

I went out the front door and got into my Lyft.

There were a half-dozen banks in Rhinebeck and I decided to go to all of them with my ID and Mrs. Redmond’s paperwork to see what I could find out.

The first three stops turned up nothing. It took a half an hour at each place for them to check their records and tell me they didn’t have any information for me. As the afternoon drug on, I was afraid I wouldn’t get through my list before the other banks closed. I walked between the different locations, my ankle throbbing, frustration building with each dead end.

At the fourth place, a branch of Hudson Valley Bank & Trust, I gave my ID to the woman at the counter. She looked puzzled and I felt like I was going to scream.

“Let me guess,” I said. “You have no idea what I’m talking about?”

The woman shook her head. “No, it’s—Can you hang on for a moment?”

I sat in the lobby while she went off with my documents. She came back a few minutes later and led me to a private office where an older woman in a harsh green blouse was seated behind a wide desk, my stack of paperwork in front of her. A small fern sat on the windowsill and it slowly shifted toward me.

“Miss Greene,” she said. She leaned forward and stuck out her hand. “I’m Evelyn Haley, the branch manager here. Please have a seat.”

I sat down as the other woman left the office, closing the door behind her.

“I’m really sorry to bother you,” I said.

“It’s no bother at all,” she said. “I have to tell you, Miss Greene, I think you may want to have a parent or guardian here with you before we proceed.”

“Why?” I asked. “I mean, I know taxes are owed on the property, but if we could please make a payment arrangement or something. We just need a little time.” I was so angry at how casually Mrs. Redmond had ripped the rug out from under us. “Please. Tell me what to do. I’ll find a way to pay the money.”

“Miss Greene, I can see that this has caused you quite a bit of stress, but I have to admit that I’m very confused right now.”

“Confused?” I asked.

She reached into her drawer and pulled out a stack of neatly organized papers, setting them on the desk. She placed her hand on top of them. “Miss Greene, these documents are the official documents for the property on 307 Old Post Road. They were drafted in January of this year when Miss Colchis was legally declared deceased. You have to understand that when there is no will—”

“Wait. Mrs. Redmond said that Circe left me the house in her will.”

The woman shook her head. “There was no will, no paperwork, nothing. The house is paid for, and the taxes have been paid through a trust for over one hundred years.”

“I don’t understand.” It felt like a rock was sitting in the pit of my stomach. “Why do we have to leave, then?”

“Miss Greene, you shouldn’t be in the house in the first place. Not yet, anyway.” Ms. Haley pursed her lips. “These documents”—she touched the ones Mrs. Redmond had left with me—“are invalid. We logged their information as invalid because they went missing.”

CHAPTER 28

I gripped the armrests of the chair. “What?”

“Until Miss Colchis was legally declared dead, the house couldn’t be auctioned or sold or any other such thing. In January of this year, when the declaration was made and certified, we prepared to auction it off. However, we received a visit from a woman representing an adoption agency in Red Hook. She told us that Circe had a living relative and provided your information to us. The documents were meant to be given to you several weeks ago, but there was an unforeseen circumstance that delayed the processing. Mrs. Taylor, the client specialist in charge of this transfer, didn’t come into work. She was in possession of the original paperwork, but unfortunately . . .” Her voice wavered. “Unfortunately, we were informed several days ago that her body was found nearby. The police now believe there was foul play involved.”

The news report I’d seen in Mrs. Redmond’s office had said something about a body being found.

“We immediately established new account numbers for Miss Colchis’s estate to protect the security of the estate. But the process of reestablishing everything took much longer than we had anticipated.” She took a long, deep breath, cleared her throat, and straightened up. “Where did you get the voided paperwork?”

“A woman came to our apartment in Brooklyn. She reached out to my mom first, and then she showed up in person. She had this paperwork with her and said we could move in. We drove all the way up here—”

“She was able to give you access to the property?”

“She gave me the keys.”

The woman looked bewildered. “We’ll need to sign the actual paperwork, and your legal guardians will need to be present, but this eviction notice is fake.” She shook her head as if she were disgusted. “I’ve heard of these types of scams. There are con artists that exploit families of the recently deceased, but this doesn’t seem like she was trying to get money or even the property itself. It seems like she was trying to put you in the house under false pretenses. It’s so odd.” She shook her head, flustered. “We need to call the police.”

My mind went in circles. “Were you here when the woman from the adoption agency came in? Did you see her?”

“Yes.”

“What did she look like?”

She thought carefully. “It was some time ago, but she was tall, black hair with a gray streak right down the center of her head.”

Mrs. Redmond.

“Call the police,” I said. “Call Dr. Grant. Right now.”

The woman immediately picked up her phone and started dialing. I stepped out into the lobby and sent texts to Mom and Mo, letting them know what was going on. Then, I messaged Karter.